St. Louis Blues’ goalie Ryan Miller (39) defends against Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon (29) during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, April 5, 2014, in St. Louis. (Bill Boyce, The Associated Press)

ST. LOUIS – This day started at 4 a.m. with a wakeup buzzer on the iPhone, 6:55 flight to St. Louis, shuttle bus to hotel, lay on bed for 40 minutes, shuttle back to airport for light rail ride downtown to cover a game at 1. Then, the day began.

First off: Ken Hitchcock is and has always been a favorite guy of mine in covering the NHL since 1995, so he will continue to have full value here. He’s brilliantly smart about the game, and hugely engaging in other aspects of life too. Believe it or not, I’ve talked almost as much about the U.S. Civil War with him as I ever have about hockey, and so too probably have other reporters. (He’s done re-enactments at the actual battlefields, and he’s Canadian).

But, yeah: Hitch and his St. Louis Blues lost their cool today and didn’t come off so well during and after their 4-0 loss to the Avalanche. It happens sometimes, no judgment from me. I once screamed like a maniac in the visitors locker room of the Pepsi Center after a Red-Wings-Avs game and came close to throwing punches with Joey Kocur, which fortunately for me never happened.

The Blues gooned it up in the third period of their loss, then Hitchcock got mad at me for relaying what Patrick Roy said about his captain, David Backes (“gutless”) for his third-period double-minor against Nathan MacKinnon. I didn’t mind or take it personally at all, to dispel what some might have thought.

Let’s admit this: the Blues had a right to get upset over that hit from Patrick Bordeleau on Kevin Shattenkirk, which really got the bad blood flowing in the third. It was a big, hard hit, from the enforcer on one of the Blues’ skill guys. Any team is going to get mad about that and feel they have to retaliate. That’s hockey when it happens.

But, yeah: Backes looked stupid going after MacKinnon. Here’s a veteran guy, a captain of a team, picking a fight against a smaller 18-year old on home ice. This is after he got knocked on his ass by MacKinnon after his first attempt at roughing him up fair and square. Once Backes got off his rear end, he jumped MacKinnon by throwing off his gloves and tackling him to the ice.

Then, after the game, Hitchcock tried to play the victim by, get this, saying he didn’t even try to really go after the Avs over the Bordeleau-Shattenkirk hit, that he was too pre-occupied in keeping his team focused on the remainder of the game and on the next day’s game in Chicago. Hitchcock said, if anything he could second-guess himself about, it was not in playing goon Ryan Reaves (“Reavo”) more in the end, to “make a bigger explosion.” He also said his team will either get Bordeleau next time or the Blues will try to take out one of the Avs’ defensemen. Can you say “Make the check out to Gary B. Bettman?” Sounds like a fine to me for promising revenge a la Todd Bertuzzi perhaps.

I asked Hitchcock about his reaction to Roy calling Backes gutless, and got smacked down right away. Here’s the video of the presser:. For the record, I simply asked Hitchcock his reaction to Roy calling his captain gutless, or at least his actions in that moment. I think it’s clear there was no egging him on or “instigating” anything. Any reporter worth his salt would have asked him the same thing.

No worries from me over this. A coach is frustrated over his team’s play and doesn’t like having his captain called gutless by the other coach, relayed by the opposing city’s beat writer, so he shoots the messenger. No big deal.

It was a bit sad, though, to hear Hitchcock go on about supposedly being the virtuous one, how he was just trying to go about playing the game and not gooning it up, which the Blues clearly did. Brenden Morrow, Backes, Max Lapierre, Barrett Jackman – they all took turns taking cheap shots at the Avs.

Backes was the worst. He couldn’t match up against an 18-year-old physically, so he had to jump him in an unfair fight. It was, indeed, a gutless showing, one not worthy of an NHL captain.

It’s hockey, though. An emotional, irrational game.

More about this game:
– Semyon Varlamov looked completely confident throughout. He had zero smile on his face after the game, of course, looking uncomfortable facing the small media around him. But so what, right? He is at the top of his game right now.

– Paul Stastny was great today. No wonder he got the hard hat:

– The entire Avs defense was excellent in the final two periods. The Blues didn’t get a sniff.

– I really like what Brad Malone is doing for this team right now. He’s bringing sandpaper to the lineup, and looking confident finally. It’s the Roy influence writ in its own way again.

– Steve Ott’s plus-minus continues to be even worse than the temperature in Winnipeg in February. He’s a terrible player now.

– The Avs had a good day with playoff ticket sales I hear.

– Roy has been harboring that “junior hockey” dig Hitchcock had at him over his opening-night glass-shoving incident with Bruce Boudreau. Today, Hitchcock looked like the junior hockey coach. And he knows it.